News from the New York State and Local Retirement System

Sign in with Confidence

The Internet has brought people together, driven innovation and ushered in personal and financial conveniences unimagined even a decade ago. Unfortunately, it’s also brought us email phishing schemes, identity and credit card theft as well as other Internet scams.

As we developed the new Retirement Online, we knew that we had to balance the ease and convenience of the tools we’d be offering with strong, cutting-edge security measures to protect the personal information of our members and retirees.

A Secure Connection

Retirement Online uses a leading encryption technology to ensure all your interactions with the site are private. We ask members and retirees to create a user ID and password to sign in. Once you do, any information you enter is hidden from anyone else on the Web.

You can see for yourself that your connection to Retirement Online is secure. When you visit a website, your computer and the site’s server send a variety of information back and forth. If that exchange is secured by SSL or another encryption technology, and you’re using a major browser (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Google Chrome), you’ll see:

6 thoughts on “Sign in with Confidence”

Beneficiaries who are receiving a monthly benefit should be able to log into Retirement Online. For help with Retirement Online, you may email us using our secure contact form and one of our customer service representatives can review your account to address your questions. Filling out the secure form allows us to safely contact you about your personal account information. Please allow five to seven business days for a response.

I am completely frustrated. I have tried to sign in to set up an online account. I answered all your obscure questions like the month my daughter was born etc. but was told I needed to call. When I called I was told the lines were busy and I needed to call back “latter.” Then I tried to email you on your secure network but the form kept asking me for my first 3 numbers of my SS but there WAS NO PLACE TO ENTER IT!!!! I don’t want to take out any money. I want to know what my balance is and what my minimum required distribution will be this year. You have made this an impossible task. I have a limited number of minutes on my call plan and I cannot wait indefinitely on line – if i can even get through. And i can’t reach you by email because you are asking me for my first 3 SS# in the 999 format(What is that? No place to enter it!!) This is beyond frustrating!!! HELP!!
Maureen Ford

We are sorry you are having trouble with Retirement Online and contacting our customer service representatives. We aren’t aware of any technical issues with the social security number field on our email form (http://www.emailNYSLRS.com). If you would like to call the NYSLRS Contact Center again, you can call 1-866-805-0990 (or 518-474-7736 in the Albany, New York area), and press 1 for the Retirement Online menu. Customer service representatives begin answering calls at 7:30 am and call volume is usually lightest at that time.

However, it would be very unusual for a member to have a required minimum distribution from the New York State and Local Retirement System, as our pensions are defined benefits, and not based on a total account balance. Is it possible you are trying to reach New York State Deferred Compensation? If so, their phone number is 1-800-422-8463, and their email address is participant.service@nysdcp.com.

I’m a retiree who lives in FL. I’m reading that our pension monies may be moved from their protected accounts and be moved to the general fund of NY State. Am I reading correctly? Can our money really be taken out of it’s own account?

We’re not sure what you’re reading, but your NYSLRS pension is a defined benefit plan — NYSLRS retirees do not have individual pension payment accounts as you would if you had a defined contribution plan like a 401(k).